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IN THIS EDITION:

• Theme for 2008
• Digital conversion
• Calling your local TV station
• Quote of the Month from Oregon
• 2008 Calendar
• Plan NOW for your Hamfest
• The Last Word 

Theme for 2008

“The tennis rackets are in the closet, the golf clubs are collecting dust in the garage.  You haven’t played on that guitar in years and, besides, it’s been missing two strings forever.
We all have hobbies that come and go.  But Ham Radio is for a lifetime.  Maybe it’s because you EARN your license.  Maybe there’s just too much to do with ham radio – a whole world (and more) to experience.  But it lasts a lifetime.

Young people may be attracted to the excitement of EmComm.  Later they might become involved in the newest developing technologies.  Older folks often like the ability to just chat with friends around the world.  Ham radio may fade in and out of people’s lives as they grow, but it never goes away and always has something new and interesting at every age.”

So there are three main interests….
            The hobby / chatting side
                        Which we addressed in Hello in 2006
            The Emergency response side
                        Which we addressed in the 2007 EmComm campaign
            And the technology side
                        Which we will emphasize in 2008

Coming soon to a PIO near you  - “We Do That!”

As the man says….stay tuned!

Digital coming in 2009

Edward W. N. "Ned" Smith, WQ3Z and others have talked about hams helping community members with the change.  There will be a major push by the government and others about this in 2008.  Here are some government docs for that.
www.dtv2009.gov

NOTE that via this website you can get free $40 off coupons for converter boxes!
Yes…the Feds are giving away coupons!!

IMPORTANT:
TV converter boxes are not expected to be available in retail stores until late February or early March. You will receive your Coupon(s) then. The Coupon will expire within 90 days from the date it is issued.
If you have any questions, you may call the Toll-Free Consumer Support Hotline
at 1-888-DTV-2009 (1-888-388-2009), 1-877-530-2634 (TTY), or write to us at:
TV Converter Box Coupon Program
PO Box 2000
Portland, OR 97208-2000

Initially, this only really affects BROADCAST television signals........cable won't really change as we’re told most systems will maintain an analog signal on the system.....at least for awhile.

Calling your local TV station

It is the curse of the salesman – the “cold call.”  Trying to sell widgets to someone who has given no indication that they even know what a widget may be, let alone want to buy one.  People fear them on BOTH ends of the conversation.  We really do not like disappointment or refusals.  We take it personally.

Unfortunately, too many hams see contacting their local TV station as the same thing.  They fear making a “cold call” and being rejected.  They would rather just comfortably edit a club newsletter that never reaches their community.  That’s most unfortunate because contacting a TV news desk is FAR from being even similar as an experience.
 
TV producer Shawne Duperon said that at many local TV stations, as many as 8 out of 10 stories on the evening news get there because somebody called to pitch an idea.   They WANT to hear your stories.  They NEED to have stories.  They LOSE MONEY if they do not get stories.  If you have a decent story, you are providing them a service they cannot live without.

So how do you call their news desk? 
1. Get your story straight.  Be prepared and don’t “wing it.”
2. Your hook will always be what does the story mean to their viewers.
3. Boil that meaning down into two sentences
4. Make the call!

From the It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This Department…

"One of the problems in this is always communication," Gov. Ted Kulongoski (Oregon) said after a visit Tuesday to Vernonia and a fly-over there and other [storm] affected areas. "I'm going to tell you who the heroes were from the very beginning of this...the ham radio operators. These people just came in and actually provided a tremendous communication link to us."

2008 Calendar

Once again, here is the next 6 months …

Plan NOW for Your Hamfest

The snow may still be flying, or if you are in Florida the sweaters are still all out, but NOW is the time to make or break your next hamfest. 

1. Invite your local volunteer firefighters to have a free display –
            They learn about you and our EmComm operations
            Everyone wins!
2. Invite a politician to drop by
            Maybe to even talk a bit about what you mean to the community.
            There’s a major election coming and they want face time
3. What other groups have you provided communications for in the past year?
            Give them a free table
4. Looking for brochures?  It does no good to give promo brochures to hams – they ARE         hams already!  But if they will pass them on to NON-hams, then it may do some   good.   www.arrl.org/brochures

The more community involvement you get, the more family and friends they will bring in with them.    But to do it right, you need to get working on it and the invitations out this month while other organizations are also planning their own schedules.

The Last Word

“We have met the enemy and he is US.” – Pogo

As more and more media outlets are posting stories to the web in addition to their print and air releases, these web postings are allowing comments from readers to be tacked onto the end.  I have seen many of them over the past months.  Usually there will be perhaps four or five written in by hams which give thanks to the author or praise to the subject.  But then there’s one…. there is always that one it seems… which is supposedly written by a ham and destroys everything. 

It is human nature to remember the one and forget the rest.  Forums and blogging seem to bring out the anonymous antisocial elements of society every time.  Clay Shirky wrote about this phenomenon and thanks to a PIO (whose name I have lost somewhere in the midst of the Christmas clutter – but thank you!)  I was given the web link to that article.  I recommend it highly as a way to understand the phenomenon of the web blogs and why there is so much negativism on them, not just for ham radio but for so many endeavors.
http://www.shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html

It explains a lot.